Nursing Literature Review: Everything You Want to Know about It

Nursing Literature Review: Everything You Want to Know about It

Are you working on a nursing dissertation? Then you should get ready to organize your search for literature and write a nursing literature review. At a glance, the task seems to be really intimidating. However, if you have enough time, a good advisor, and know the main rules, completing your nursing literature review will not be that troublesome.

You can start with this article and get general information that will help you begin your work on the nursing literature review.

What are nursing literature reviews all about?

Actually, the gist and purposes of writing a nursing literature review are the same as of reviews in any other subjects. You have to find all literature related to the chosen topic and analyze it.

You have to write the nursing literature review for the following reasons:

  • to define what is already known about your topic and what needs further investigation;
  • to find out more about research methods, techniques, instruments;
  • to define all major theories and concepts and decide how well previous studies were developed;
  • to justify your own research.

What types of information will you have to use in your nursing literature review?

To prepare an excellent nursing literature review, you will have to use both theoretical and empirical knowledge. This means that you will have to deal with various books that present theoretical basis and research projects of other scholars in your field.

Where can you find sources for your nursing literature review?

Library, where all information is systematically organized, is the first place you should visit to get sources necessary for the completion of your nursing literature review.

However, there are a lot of useful Web resources that can help you write a good nursing literature review: Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Medline/PubMed, Health Source/Nursing, etc.